Microsoft Edge Browser Review

Together with Windows 10 Microsoft introduces a new browser: Microsoft Edge. Lots of people turned to alternatives, such as Google Chrome, as a result. With Windows 10, Microsoft went again to the drawing board and scrapped all the things it had performed so far with Internet Explorer. It built a completely new browser from scratch, one that would shed the entire baggage of Internet Explorer and provide a modern, fast web browsing experience for Windows users.

Microsoft Edge comes at a crucial time for Microsoft: Internet Explorer has lower than twenty percent share of the browser market, with one percent of the overall mobile market, according to the Adobe Digital Index. Meanwhile, Google Chrome leads with forty-two percent of desktop market share, and Apple’s Safari holds fifty-eight percent of the mobile browser market, per the same report.

Microsoft Edge, on the other hand, will feature a brand new rendering engine to support modern HTML websites and to offer better compatibility and efficiency. Microsoft Edge would be the default web browser in Windows 10.

As for everything else? Read on to seek out all you want to know about Microsoft’s new Microsoft Edge browser.

Microsoft Edge: Design

The most obvious change with Microsoft Edge is a tweaked feel and look. The top navigation bar are now thicker and has a much more uniform number of buttons that ought to make it simpler to be used with touchscreen units. In contrast, Internet Explorer has totally different sized icons and an extra cramped navigation bar.

The overall format is also a bit extra-logical, with the refresh button next to the back and forward buttons and alongside the URL bar. This places all of the ‘clutter’ in a single row while tabs have been moved to a separate row above where there is extra room for them and they merely make more sense to be. That is pretty much the convention now in web browsers, with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox also arranged this manner, so it is a smart change.

Microsoft could quite simply have made these modifications to Internet Explorer – none of those cosmetic tweaks would have affected compatibility – however, has chosen to make use of them as a way to differentiate the 2 browsers.

Microsoft Edge: Cortana

Deeper Cortana integration is the other spotlight of this Microsoft Edge. Whereas the non-public assistant is all the time out there via the taskbar, it can pop up alongside the top of the browser on pages it thinks it may assist you with, like websites for businesses or restaurants. In different words, it would not present its little circle self on every website you go to. Microsoft found during user testing people do not actually want a virtual personal assistant peering into all their web browsing. Go figure.

When it does pop up, Cortana provides data about the web page you are, like a phone number, instructions and hours of operation, and can allow you to make a reservation.

Cortana will even present details on phrases users highlight. Do not know what pancetta is? Be prepared for a crash course within the cured meat. Highlight a phrase or phrase you do not understand, right click on, and Cortana supplies you with information on that word or phrase.

Cortana on the browser, at least within the Microsoft Edge we noticed, only works with clicking and typing. If you change to Cortana on the task bar, then you may speak to it and it’ll verbally respond.

All this Cortana integration is useful but does not really feel like a revolutionary feature. Google has offered related intel via Google Now for a while now, so it seems like Microsoft Edge is playing catch-up versus introducing one thing new with what Cortana brings to the desk.

Microsoft Edge: Marking up web pages

You may select the width of the lines you wish to make as well as the colour, and scribble messages or draw round items you need to highlight with your finger or mouse. Or, simply scribble over the entire thing.

It was not simple to write in a controlled vogue using the mouse. The phrases were legible, but it felt like more bother than it was worth. Do not even ask to take a look at the circles we tried to draw using a mouse.

Drawing with a finger was a lot simpler, though if you have bad handwriting, you will additionally likely run into unreadable rooster scratch. There’s, thankfully, an option to type a message onto a page or minimize out a particular part of the page. If you do not have a touch-supported device, you are stuck with these options anyway.

Microsoft Edge: Reading View

Clicking on an icon that appears like an open book activates the reading view, and the online page is stripped of all advertisements, irrelevant photos, and styling. What stays is a clean and far more readable version of the online page, with giant text and no distractions.

The reading view may be adjusted to suit your preferences. The text size might be changed, and a number of viewing styles can be found.

Microsoft Edge: Sharing

Sharing is simple to access. After you draw, type or choose the part of the Microsoft Edge page you wish to save, you click on an icon within the top right corner to access OneNote or save it to Reading List for later.

Microsoft Edge: Browser Extensions

The lack of extensions presently is another obvious drawback; For instance, individuals who use a password manager, which cannot integrate, which is annoying when logging into websites. Flash and PDF are supported a comfortable standard though additionally it is possible to switch off Flash. Microsoft plans to build in support for extensions at a later time, but when exactly we have no idea yet.

Microsoft Edge: Features

Apart from the brand new, a lot faster under the hood Edge HTML rendering engine, the new browser gives a number of cool options. My favorite is Web Notes. This lets you annotate a web page right on screen after which save your markings as notes or ship your markings to different users. For example, you may circle the text that makes this paragraph and then send the web page with the markup to your mates.

Microsoft Edge: Performance

Its rendering engine is as speedy and highly effective as we would expect and will little doubt make the browser simpler to program for, however, it’s the inbuilt options that actually promote it.

The studying mode could be very helpful and so very neatly implemented. Likewise the annotation stuff, while most likely a little bit of a niche, is very properly done no extra faffing about with completely different screen grab tools and Photoshop simply to make a few comments on a website or article.

The overall experience can be blessedly clear and easy, with Microsoft doing a job of tidying up the clutter that made utilizing Internet Explorer at occasions confusing and cumbersome.

Microsoft Edge: Verdict

While browsing experience in Microsoft Edge so wonderful, we kept returning to Chrome because of completely different extensions that we don’t want any. We will think about that many power users who’re at the moment using Chrome or Firefox will therefore not change.